Understanding types of vector data in QGIS

- Vector data, meaning data such as points,lines, and polygons, are extremely important in QGIS.The bulk of your work will be done using this type of data.Let's look at QGIS to see what typesof vector data I can use.Under Layer, under Add Layer,you can see Add Vector Layerbut there's other Vector Layers you can addsuch as a PostGIS Layer, SpatiaLite Layer,MSSQL Server Spatial Layer, Oracle Spatial Layer,as well as a WFS Layer,even a Delimited Text layer is available.

Under the Add Vector Layer, let's choose that.Right away, you see a File Source type.So when you pick the Browse button,under All Files, you'll see a listof the supported vector base data sets.From the GDAL FileHandler types, Arc/Info Coverages,Atlas BN, DXF, Comma Separated Values,Shapefiles all the way down to thingssuch as GML, KML and even VRT,Virtual Datasource types.

There are lot of vector base data types in herethat you can choose from.These are all from the File base.Now let's just cancel this for a moment.So that's File base vector.Let's look at Directory base.If I pick Type, you can see there's UK, NTF2.There's U.S. Census types.There's the OpenFile Geodatabaseas well as a Binary Coverage.So what we have here are file Geodatabases,Binary Coverages, TIGER/Line and NTF.

These are folders that contain all the vector data.Not at one single file like a shapefile or a TAB filebut these are folders that contain all the data.So that's what the Directory base file type is for.Under Database, this is where we get Oracle Spatialas your personal Geodatabase which is an access file,Microsoft SQL Server, and others like PostgreSQL and MySQL.Of course we can connect to data using regular ODBC.If you connect to a database or a tablethat has no Geographic data within it,that's okay because we can still use that tabular datafor our reports and for plotting.

Finally, there's the Protocol.This one right now is only GeoJSON.So we have a URL or URI where the GeoJSON is streaming from.We can actually put it in there.In this case, I have one.Let's paste it in.At nanaimo.ca/crimereporting/api/incidents.I put a question mark and put format=geojson.This will get all the crime incidents in GeoJSON formatstreaming right into my QGIS.That's what the URL is.

That URL again is nanaimo.ca/crimereporting/api/incidents?format=geojson.If I open this, you'll see that vector data will streamright into QGIS.So why the ray of supported vector typessuch as shapefiles and SQLite?Make QGIS, an extremely useful toolfor mapping and analysis.

Resume Transcript Auto-Scroll

Author

Released

8/26/2015

Enrich your GIS data and make more effective maps with QGIS. Gordon Luckett shows how to get QGIS up and running on your computer and create maps with vector and raster data. Plus, learn how to stylize maps, get more insights from data with overlays and heat maps, and publish results with powerful Python-driven plugins for QGIS.